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Monday, 13 August 2012

Maiden Victory for ES Racing

12 August 2012 will be a day etched in
Luton-based Team ES Racing history as Dave Newsham took his
and the teams’ maiden victory in the Dunlop MSA
British Touring Car Championship at
Snetterton.

The weekend didn’t start ideally
for Newsham when he retired from the first practice session
early with radiator problems, but he soon made up for lost
time as he qualified third place just 0.054 seconds from
pole position.

Race one saw Newsham drive a strong race
to finish fourth only to be disqualified after stewards
deemed the car to be underweight after a miscalculation with
fuel.

Newsham had it all to do again in the
second race as he started from last on the grid, his steady
pace saw him move up through the field to finish a strong
eighth place, securing second place on the grid for the
final race of the day as 9 was drawn for the reverse
grid.

After initially losing out to the BMW of
Tom Onslow-Cole at the start Newsham pushed hard to build
the pace and take back his second place by the end of the
first lap. His pace would prove relentless as he found a gap
to pass Lea wood in to the hairpin for the top spot, from
that moment Newsham never looked back.

Dave Newsham crosses the line to take the maiden victory

“I thought we
might be able to do something like this this weekend if
everything went in to place. We had great pace in qualifying
and practice, no testing in between the last race,
it’s just awesome isn’t
it.”
commented Newsham after the race.

Team mate and team principal Chris James
suffered a disappointing weekend that involved delaminated
tyres in qualifying, broken driveshafts and a number of
collisions where James was hit from behind. Despite his own
disappointment James was delighted at the performance of
Newsham to take his team the top spot of the
podium.

“We always
believed we could do it but believing and it turning in to
reality is two different things. What an up and down weekend
for the whole team with Dave being disqualified in the first
race and three DNF’s from myself we ended the weekend
as a BTCC race winning team” said James.
“The team have turned out a quality car and with Dave
in the driving seat the whole package comes together.”

Team mananger Andrew Dean added
“Well done to all at Team ES racing after another
‘character building’ weekend - under sometimes
trying circumstances Dave and the team got the result that
we knew we were capable of at the media day back in
March.”